Time To Face Reality
by gawilliams
Summary: My take on the morning after of the Season Finale.


_There have been a few stories already about this very thing, the morning after they apparently have finally gotten together at the end of the season finale. This is how I picture the next morning. I hope you enjoy it. Gregg._

_Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended._

Kate Beckett stretched and rolled onto her side, seeking the warmth that had kept her satisfied, and sane, the night before. She saw him sitting up in bed, looking off into the distance. She took in the sight of him, the muscles in his arms and chest impressive by any standard. She saw some scratches on his arms and shoulders, and clear evidence of what her lips had done on his neck during their long night of sexual abandon. She could feel the after effects of that same kind of plundering on her neck and along the curve of her breasts.

"What are you thinking about?' she asked as she sat up, not caring that she was naked under the sheet that pooled at her waist, her breasts on display.

"It isn't over, Kate," he said softly. "They won't just let this go, even if you aren't on the force any longer. They'll come after you and try to kill you."

"I know," she replied, taking his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers.

"And they'll come after Javi and Kevin, too," he continued. "No one's safe anymore. Not even me."

"I know," she said again. "Javi's on suspension, and Kevin is by himself for now. As for you, I've got your back, and you've got mine."

"This isn't a game, Kate," Castle said firmly, trying to keep the images from the shooting the year before at Montgomery's funeral from taking center stage in his mind.

"It never was, Rick," she responded. "I'm sorry I brought all this about."

"You did what you always do," he told her. "You sought the truth. I may not like how you went about it at times, but you wouldn't be you if you hadn't."

"Then what should we do?" she asked him, wondering if he was plotting something like in his novels. For all the ribbing she and the guys had given him over the years, he was truly a master strategist when it came to crime and mystery.

"I think we need to take the offensive," Castle said, very reluctantly. "It's time this ended once and for all. But we need Javi and Kevin in on this. We can't go it alone."

"And Gates," Kate told him. "She can give us the backup we need when it gets too hot."

"You resigned, Kate, and she suspended Javi," he pointed out. "I don't think she's going to be terribly receptive to helping us."

"Let's talk about this later," she suggested. "There's something else I need to say."

Castle stiffened a bit. "Please don't tell me that you regret last night," he almost pleaded.

Kate smiled, and looked down at the barely covered bulge slightly tenting out the sheet at his lap. "No," she said slowly, letting the appreciative look speak volumes. "I won't ever regret that. I regret taking so long and hurting you so much in getting to this point, but I don't regret making that step."

"Thank God," Castle sighed in relief. "I don't think it would be a good scene for Alexis to come home and find me crying like a baby."

"How was her speech?" Kate asked.

"Brilliant," Castle smiled that one smile that always shone when he spoke of or thought about his pride and joy. "I almost choked on my tongue when I told her I was fine and wouldn't worry about her until she got home by _**noon**_."

"Afraid she's going to find someone to have a celebration like ours?" Kate teased, and laughed out loud at the horrified, worried Father look on his face.

"I am definitely going to speak to her about the benefits of living _**at home**_ since college is in the same city," Castle decreed.

"Then I guess there won't be any nude play days at home," Kate joked, loving how protective and fatherly he was with Alexis.

"My daughter is a paragon of virtue and won't have any problems in the dorms," Castle retreated instantly. "Now about those nude play days...," he trailed off, a very eager look on his face.

Kate laughed. "Later, Lover Boy," she told him.

"_Lover Boy_?" Castle questioned. "Much better than _**Kitten**_. Or _Writer Boy_."

"Oh, no," she told him. "You're all man, Castle. _**ALL**_ Man."

Castle felt a shot of arousal shoot through him as he saw her lick her lips sensually when she extolled his manhood. "And is there anything your _**MAN**_ can do right now?" he asked, chomping at the bit considering the direction this was going.

"Down boy," she chuckled. "We've got plenty of time for that. I want you to know something first."

"Okay," he sobered instantly.

"For the first time in thirteen years I have something in my life more important than my Mother's case," she told him. "I went through the Hell of my father's fight with alcoholism, my desperate, almost psychotic obsession with the case, and then four years pushing you aside. When I almost died yesterday it all became clear to me. The narrow focus widened, and I realized that the only thing that mattered was you. My feelings for you, and the fact that despite some mistakes of your own, you've always been there for me. I know we'll need to finish this case because of what's coming, but it's no longer more important than what makes me happy. You make me happy, Rick, and I love you for it. You're the reality I've needed all these years."

"I need to call my editor," Castle mused.

Kate looked at him in shock. "I just tell you something that means so much to me and you come back with the need to call your editor?" she asked incredulously, giving him a stern glare that spoke to the reality that he better have a good explanation for such a switch in topic.

"I finished the fourth _Nikki Heat_ novel and told them that was it," Castle told her. "I ended it and I know you won't like it, so I'm telling them there will be more _Nikki Heat_ novels and I need to change the ending of the fourth one."

"You were severing everything between us," Kate whispered, shocked and pained by just how close she had come to fully losing him.

"I meant what I told you, Kate," he stated firmly. "I couldn't watch you become a martyr for what is a cold case, even though it is your Mother's. It almost killed me seeing you get shot last year, and this would have been the nail in my own coffin. I end us, end _Nikki Heat_ and hope that I don't lose my sanity."

"Espo is on suspension," Kate told him. "I think we need to get him and Kevin over here and all of us have a talk. Then we can decide where to go from here."

"As a group?" Castle pressed. "No going on your own, or anyone on their own?"

"As a group," Kate agreed. "I've made a colossal mess of things by being unilateral."

"But we don't have to get the group together right now, do we?" Castle asked, making a slight gesture to the tent in the sheet formed by a certain piece of his anatomy.

Kate smiled. "I think it can wait until we deal with your condition," she told him, leaning over and kissing him deeply and then moving to straddle him. "Maybe not until tonight."

Castle groaned. "I sure hope Alexis stays away with friends until this afternoon," he said huskily and he rolled them over and wound up on top. "_Late in the afternoon_."

_A/N: There will be one more chapter to this one in which the group gets together and discusses matters. I hope you enjoyed this short chapter. Gregg._


End file.
